The KISS (Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences) Foundation has joined the TB Harega Desh Jitega initiative launched by the Centre to make the country TB-free by 2025.

It has adopted the Kandhamal district to make it TB-free.

Kandhamal Lok Sabha MP and founder of KISS Foundation Achyuta Samanta on Monday launched the ‘Food Basket’ distribution programme for TB patients.

The food basket comprises 3kg of cereals and millets for the adult patients; 2kg of cereals and millets for children; 1.5kg and 1kg pulses for adults and children respectively; 250 grams and 150 grams of vegetable cooking oil for adults and children and 1kg and 750 grams of groundnuts for adults and children respectively.

“In the first phase, nutritional food distribution programme has been launched for 606 TB patients, including 39 children in 6 blocks at Phulani and another 6 blocks in Baliguda,” said a press release issued by KISS.

The food basket distribution will be carried out every month. KISS Foundation will incur an expenditure of Rs 5 lakh every month and approximately Rs 40 lakh for the next six months.

While distributing the food baskets to the patients, Samanta said the objective of distributing the baskets is to support the nutritional requirement of the patients as medicine alone is not enough to cure patients.

Collector of Kandhamal Ashish Ishwar Patil lauded the initiative of KISS Foundation and said the support will expedite the Centre’s mission to eliminate the disease from across the country by 2025.